This invention relates generally to wind indicators and more particularly to combined anemometers and wind vanes which are self propelling and visibly readable from substantial distances.
Many forms of wind speed indicators are now in use, and are capable of transmitting information to remote indicators, which when monitored by man or machine will give up this information to the monitor, which in all cases must be in close proximity to the indicator. Relieving this need for close proximity to the indicator is one of the improvements my machine affords. My wind indicator permits this range of proximity to be greatly extended, which is particularly useful when the information disclosed is desired to be made instantly and continuously available to a dispersed and mobile group of people, from whatever their vantage point with a 360.degree. azimuth of the device. The use of optical aids will extend even further the useful range of the device.
A characteristic of most know anemometers is the use of a sensing device, which by design rotates with a peripheral speed nearly equal to the wind speed at the point of tangency, and a recording system is designed to offer a nearly constant and insignificant load factor to the sensing device, and measure its speed of rotation differentially. In my device a dynamic rotor is mounted on a shaft, and free to rotate. When the rotor is in a medium in motion, then the energy transmitted to the shaft through the rotor may be measured in terms of work done on the shaft, with the speed of rotation disregarded, except as an incidental occurance. The work done on the shaft may be accurately measured and continuously displayed by the angular displacement of conical pendulum arms, free to rotate in angular displacement from the axis of the shaft. This scheme differs from the others in that as the energy of the medium to be measured increases, a significant increasing work load is placed upon the shaft through the pendulum arms causing the rotor to rotate at a slower speed proportionate to the work being done, rather than in direct proportion to the velocity of the medium.
The most common anemometers consist of cups or cones mounted on the spokes of a rotatable wheel. These anemometers indicate wind speed by reading the rotations per minute of the wheel. Such instruments are made for graphic or meter dial readout and are not suitable for providing wind speed information to persons not in close proximity to the readout device. Wind vanes of the pivoted arrow type are well known and provide wind direction information to persons at a fair distance but not at a substantial distance where the directional position of the arrow cannot be accurately ascertained. In many outdoor activities which are popular today wind information is helpful to the participants, and yet the participants are too mobile to make use of such information if it is available only at a central point and must be read from close proximity. Golf courses, rifle ranges, airports, farms and industrial plants are all examples of facilities where wind information available to mobile people from substantial distances would be quite useful. Efforts have been made in the past to combine a wind vane and anemometer into a self propelled wind information device but none of these devices has been commercially successful for they have not truly met the need. The prior devices have either failed to provide a facility for readily indicating wind velocity in a manner capable of enlarged display, or have failed to display the wind information in a manner which permits its reading from all directions and substantial distances.
It is, therefore, a major object of my invention to provide an improved wind indicator which displays wind velocity and direction in such a manner that it is readily readable from any direction within its visual range, whereby wind information can be provided to a dispersed and mobile group of people.
It is also an object of my invention to provide a wind indicator of the type described which indicates both the wind velocity and wind direction.
It is another object of my invention to provide a wind indicator of the type described in which a fan rotor is utilized to sense the wind and the wind velocity is indicated by the movement of a pair of pendulums away from the vertical axis of the fan rotor by the effect of centrifugal force.
It is a further object of my invention to provide a wind indicator of the type described in which the wind velocity is readable by means of a non-linear scale set out along a surface adjacent the path described by the distal ends of the pendulums attached to the fan rotor shaft.
It is still another object of my invention to provide a wind indicator of the type described in which the wind direction is sensed by a wind vane attached to the frame housing the anemometer and the direction is provided by an indicator which can be seen from substantial distances.
It is still a further object of my invention to provide a wind indicator of the type described which is relatively simple to construct and practically maintenance free in operation.
It is still a further object of my invention to provide a wind indicator of the type described which can be used as a decorative device as well as a wind velocity and direction indicator and which has substantial interest appeal to the observer.